


Death Like Sleep

by Revelation_Dis



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Angst, Dead Body, Gen, Heavy Angst, Original Character - Freeform, Sort Of, Trauma, death mention, young catra
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-02
Updated: 2019-07-02
Packaged: 2020-06-02 13:46:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,860
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19442641
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Revelation_Dis/pseuds/Revelation_Dis
Summary: “Hush little Azar, you must remain quiet!” a magicat woman whispers to her crying toddler.She holds little Azar against her as she presses herself against an alley wall. It is a poor covering, that she realizes, but at the moment it’s too risky to make her way to the next hiding spot close by. She needs to wait for the Horde soldier to move past, but they are taking their time. Azar trembles in her mother’s arms and wants to ask what’s going on, why are they running away, but she doesn’t.





	Death Like Sleep

**Author's Note:**

> Heavy warning for violence, blood, torture, graphic detail of a decaying body.

“Hush little Azar, you must remain quiet!” a magicat woman whispers to her crying toddler.

She holds little Azar against her as she presses herself against an alley wall. It is a poor covering, that she realizes, but at the moment it’s too risky to make her way to the next hiding spot close by. She needs to wait for the Horde soldier to move past, but they are taking their time. Azar trembles in her mother’s arms and wants to ask what’s going on, why are they running away, but she doesn’t.

“This is fucking stupid,” the Horde soldier grumbles, “Find a stupid Magicat and kill her?”

“Just keep on the look-out, and stop complaining! We got orders from Hordak himself, we take out this Queen C’yra, got it?” a voice communicates into the first soldier’s ear piece.

“Fine!”

C’yra holds her breath as he passes them. Thankfully he doesn’t bother to look in their direction. When she’s absolutely positive that he’s gone, C’yra looks to her left, then her right, and makes a beeline for a stack of crates that are against a building. The plan is simple; she’ll use the crates to reach the top of that building, and from there she’ll continue to use the environment to help her climb up the other adjacent buildings until she’s found a good vantage point. She manages to reach the crates when she hears the crackling of an electric baton behind her.

“Well, well, look what we got here!” a voice rings out with laughter.

“Ha ha, yeah! Didn’t Hordak say that he’d reward whoever killed the Magicat Queen?” another voice asks.

C’yra whispers to Azar, “Run,” and then drops her.

Azar lands on her feet and quickly runs away to where she has no idea, but she trusts her mother. She continues to run until she manages to find a basket to hide in. She doesn’t know what’s going on, but is sure that her mother will come for her after everything is alright. As she waits in the darkness, watching life go by from the tiny holes in the basket, she hears her stomach rumble. The young kitten hopes that her mother returns to her soon.

“Ahh, shit! There was a princess?” the first soldier yells.

“Don’t worry about her! Our only concern is with the Queen here.”

C’yra makes a run for it. It’s a bold move that proves to be a very bad one as well. She gets no further than ten feet when a painful blast of electricity hits her full force causing her to collapse to the ground. The aftershocks cause her to twitch, but she still tries to escape.

“For the love of Hordak!” the second one yells, “Did Hordak say we had to make her death quick?” he asks.

“Naah, I think he just wants her dead. He never said we couldn’t have any fun with her!” he laughs.

C’yra rolls over on her back and looks up at the two soldiers. “Please, just kill me, and make it quick!”

They laugh at her, “Yeah, we’re going to kill you alright, but it won’t be quick!” and with that the first one is flipping her over on her stomach while the second one grabs her tail.

He yanks on it hard, causing C’yra to yowl in pain. She struggles to get away from her assailants but together they are too strong. Desperate still, she swipes her claws at one of them and manages to scratch his hand.

“Ow!”

“Oh come on, it wasn’t that bad!” the other soldier says.

“Yeah? Fuck you too, hold her still for me!” the first one commands.

The second soldier gets a death-grip hold on C’yra, and watches as his comrade grabs her right hand and starts examining her fingers. “What are you doing?”

“What does it look like?” and he takes out a pair of Horde issued pliers and uses them to rip the claw from C’yra’s index finger.

Her scream of pain is silenced when the other soldier clasps his hand over her mouth. C’yra is reduced to growling as one by one her claws are ripped from her fingers, leaving bloody tips in their stead. She’s in pain, and now her best weapons are gone. She fears what else they may do to her.

“What else should we do to her?” the second one asks.

“I can think of a few ideas,” the first soldier cruelly chuckles.

*****  
Night has now fallen and Azar is still waiting for her mother to return. The need to eat however overrides her need to obey, so when she spots a rat she’s quick to clamor out of the basket in order to catch it, but it gets away from her. Disappointed, the little girl starts walking along the village path. Nobody seems to notice her, which is probably a good thing all things considered. She sneaks through the throngs of night traveling people. At one point she grabs a piece of raw meat from a table.

“Hey! You can’t just take that!” the merchant yells.

Azar looks up at him pitifully with mismatched eyes, and then she runs off with the piece of meat in her hands. Those nearby try to catch her but she is too quick for them and manages to evade them.

“Ugh, just forget it!” the Satyr merchant grumbles.

It isn’t worth the hassle to go after a young Magicat kitten.

*****  
Azar makes her way to the last place she was with her mother, and when she sees that she’s still there she immediately runs over to her. “I found food, Momma!” she exclaims, showing C’yra the piece of meat she took.

C’yra doesn’t move, but this doesn’t seem to deter Azar. “Sleeping? Ok. Wake up soon?”

Azar rips a piece of meat off and quickly devours it. With her hunger slightly slated, she curls up against her mother and rests her eyes.

*****  
When she wakes up it’s now morning, and her mom is still there. “Momma, wake up, we need to go,”

C’yra doesn’t move. Azar tears a piece of meat off for her mother and places it in her right hand. “Need to eat, ok?” 

She notices the red scabs that cover the tips of her mother’s fingers, but she doesn’t understand what it means. “Claws gone?”

No answer. Azar decides that her mother is still sleeping, so she stays by her. On occasion she tries to get her mother to eat, but she can’t seem to convince her. As the heat of the moon’s light becomes stronger, Azar has to shoo away the flies that fly over to her mother. 

“Go away!” Azar yells as she viciously swats them away.

They keep coming no matter how much she tries to get them to go away. Eventually she gives up. She curls up against her mother and rests her eyes. The buzzing of the flies grows even louder, and little Azar thinks that something smells bad. “I wish you’d wake up momma,”

But C’yra remains silent as always.

*****  
The next day Azar wakes up, and excitedly looks at her mother. “Okay, nap time is over! Let’s go!”

But still her mother doesn’t move, and now there are more flies on her. They enter her nostrils, her mouth, her ears, and other places. Azar still doesn’t understand. “Come on, momma! We need to go now!”

She grabs her mother’s arm and tries to pull her up, but she’s much too weak. Instead she falls back and lands on the ground. She wonders if her mother isn’t speaking to her because she did something wrong.

“Momma, did I do wrong?” she asks.

There’s no answer.

“Momma...Mommy!”

No answer.

“I’m sorry!”

No answer.

Azar throws her arms over her mother and begins sobbing. “Please don’t be angry at me! I’m sorry!”

No answer.

She continues sobbing until she can sob no more, and then she falls asleep.

*****  
“Adora, Adora what are you doing?” a low voice asks.

“I found something!” a young voice exclaims, “Ew, it smells like poo!”

Azar opens her eyes and sees a blonde human girl around her age, maybe a little older than her.

“Adora, don’t touch that!” the first voice commands.

Azar sees a figure dressed in red robes and she has long flowing black hair like fire. The kitten hisses at the figure.

“Why not?” The one called Adora asks.

The girl’s mother (Azar assumes she must be Adora’s mother) looks down at her daughter. “You shouldn’t be around dead bodies. They carry diseases that can make you sick.”

“What about her?” Adora asks as she points at Azar.

The woman looks at Azar and says, “She’s disease ridden as well, Adora. It won’t be long before death claims her.”

The kitten doesn’t understand what death means, but she assumes it’s bad.

“Miss Weaver, we should still help her! We can’t just leave her next to that dead body!” Adora insists.

“My mommy is not a dead body!” Azar snaps, “She’s just sleeping!”

Miss Weaver chuckles, “Yes, she’s asleep, and she won’t be waking up anytime soon, Little One.”

Azar storms over to Miss Weaver and bares her fangs at her, “She will too wake up!!”

It’s little Adora who goes over to Azar. “Hi, I’m sorry you don’t know me, I’m Adora. What’s your name?”

“Azar,” the Magicat kitten responds.

“I’m sorry about your mommy, but Miss Weaver is right.”

Azar begins to tear up, “You mean my mommy won’t ever wake up? But why?”

Adora shakes her head, “I don’t know. Sometimes people go to sleep and they never wake up.”

“But, but what if she does wake up? I need to be here for her!” Azar cries.

“Please, if she were to wake up she would have done so by now!” Miss Weaver yells, exasperated by the entire thing.

Azar runs back to her mother and in a desperate attempt to get her to wake up she starts hitting her mother with her tiny fists. “Wake up! Mommy, wake up! Wake up! WAKE UP! WAKE UP WAKEUP WAKE UP!!! COME ON PLEASE WAKE UP??!!! MOMMY!!!”

Adora starts crying, and even Shadow Weaver is starting to feel emotional. She steps over to the dead body and visually examines it before stooping down to grab something from C’yra’s neck. It’s a necklace and a scarf. “Here you are little one. So long as you have these then you’ll always have your mother with you.”

“I will?” Azar sniffles.

It takes a little more convincing, but eventually little Azar leaves her mother behind, and goes along with Adora, and her mother. She still doesn’t quite understand death, just that it’s something where people go to sleep and never wake up. As the days go by however, Azar continually cries out for her mother. Shadow Weaver is tired of the girl’s whining so she decides to help Azar.

“This will only take a moment, and then all of the pain will go away,” she says just before using her magic on the kitten.

*****  
“Hey, Azar, are you okay?” Adora asks.

“Who’s Azar? My name’s Catra,” Catra answers back.

**Author's Note:**

> I saw a video on youtube about a kitten that wouldn't leave it's dead mother, and started thinking about that in regards to a possible scenario with Catra.
> 
> The name Azar is Persian for fire. I figured that her mom wouldn't have named her Catra, and truth be told I didn't want to name Catra 'C'yra' either.


End file.
